Description
Book SynopsisIn these series of letters—which David Scott wrote to Stuart Hall following his death—Scott characterizes Hall's voice and his practice of speaking, listening, and generosity as the foundational elements of Hall's intellectual work.
Trade Review"Scott’s small and eminently readable book is written as a series of epistolary letters to his late friend and mentor..... When the book merits our attention, it is in its keen attention and responsiveness to central themes in Halls oeuvre, and Hall’s mode of thinking and engaging as a public intellectual. For Scott calls attention to Hall’s using his particular and characteristic voice as a public intellectual as a mode of thinking itself; and speaking and listening a way of clarification." -- Sindre Bangstad * Africa is a Country *
"Scott is an anthropologist at Columbia and to my mind one of the most provocative and interesting figures in the constellation of literary criticism and political philosophy that falls under post-colonial theory.... [A] very lively conversation and an interesting introduction to the thought and style of both Stuart Hall and David Scott." -- Michael Schapira * Full Stop *
"David Scott’s
Stuart Hall’s Voice consists of a wonderfully original format, a series of letters written to Hall after his death exploring the significance of his legacy to so many contemporary intellectuals who remain enthralled by his influence." -- Mark Perryman * Open Democracy *
"[A] triumphant and sensitive exploration into a tricky and fascinating topic. . . . Scott’s book serves as a welcome reminder that to think comprehensively with and through the work of Stuart Hall, we cannot neglect his powerful voice which, in exhibiting a particular kind of stylistic ethos, embraced listening and learning as much, if not more, than it did speaking and teaching." -- Nick Malherbe * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *
"This is an unusual and unusually beautiful book." -- John Clarke * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *
"Scott maps an uncommon history of his intellectual friendship with Hall. But their relationship is obviously more than just one of scholarly admiration. Scott shows deep care in how the book dialogically speaks to and listens with Hall’s thinking voice through writing. It is as if the two are in actual material communion. Scott’s epistolary style is rich in its possibilities as use for other similar academic enterprises and sits at the intersections of fiction, exposition, memory and critical analysis." -- Agostinho Pinnock * Postcolonial Studies *
Table of ContentsApology: On Intellectual Friendship 1
1. A Listening Self: Voice and the Ethos of Style 23
2. Responsiveness to the Present: Thinking through Contingency 53
3. Attunement to Identity: What We Make of What We Find 85
4. Learning to Learn from Others: An Ethics of Receptive Generosity 115
Adieu: Walk Good 143
Acknowledgments 147
Notes 149
Index 179
